lydianchromaticconcept.com

The main body of the LCC and its practical application, including all 4 published versions of Book 1 with their inserts: the 1959 tan cover; the 1959 light green cover Japanese edition; the 1970‘s white cover, which adds an illustrated River Trip to the 1959 edition, and the currently available Fourth Edition, 2001.

The authorization code is the first word on Page 198 of the Fourth Edition of the LCCTO.

Forum rulesAn open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts.1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice

I really don't understand very well why do you choose to name the first collection of notes as Db11(b5) and no like an inversion of Badd9#5, this is the most natural label for me. And the second is, for me an inversion of Cadd9#5. And another thing, I mostly after the study of this book I always prefer to look instead of b5, like #11 any chord given....just my point of view.....

@Bob, thank you! I try to speak up only when I feel like I might be able to add to the conversation

@Fer, when you say "like an inversion of Badd9#5", this was a point that I had raised a few posts back: sometimes it's easier to view a specific voicing as just an inversion of a more common chord, which often times makes the process of assigning a PMG much easier.

I had mentioned the voicing of Db G B Eb Gb could easily be viewed as an A13#11 in First Inversion (C# G B D# F#) - even though the root A isn't present (more on that later).

The more I play this voicing, the more I find that I can't help but hear it that way. Dominant 7th #11 chords seem to be EVERYWHERE, and to me they are a 'common sound'. Catagorizing this voicing as an inversion of PMG II chord from G Lydian Augmented seems to be a very direct way to handle this particular sound.

This brings me to my larger point (something I've been messing with for YEARS since being introduced to the LCC):

As a guitarist, I like using a lot of 4-note and 5-note voicings. The tricky part for me USE TO BE when I would encounter a chord like A13#11 and I would think "How do I get a good voicing for this chord on a 6-string instrument?"

I sat down one day and made a list of every 4-note voicings I could use in a "Lydian" context (playing over a Maj7, Maj9, Maj9#11, Maj13#11 etc.).

After spending some time with these voicings on my instrument, I made note of which ones I really liked so that I could come back to them.

Then I moved on to playing INVERSIONS of all of these voicings. THAT took quite some time.

Then I started doing this with each of the individual Scales (Lyd Aug, Lyd Dim, etc.)

And then something magical and life changing dawned on me: leave out the Root dummy!

Once I started to build voicings (and inversions) that were Root-less, I began to see (and hear) chords in a whole new way. Everytime I play a voicing now, that's all I'm concerned with: no matter what notes I'm playing in this voicing, how do I 'hear' it, and where does it fit in.

If you write it all out (like I did over the course of several years), it's thousands of voicings and inversions - but is some of the most valuable time I have ever spent on my instrument, and it all came from the LCC.

NateComp wrote:Once I started to build voicings (and inversions) that were Root-less, I began to see (and hear) chords in a whole new way. Everytime I play a voicing now, that's all I'm concerned with: no matter what notes I'm playing in this voicing, how do I 'hear' it, and where does it fit in.

If you write it all out (like I did over the course of several years), it's thousands of voicings and inversions - ... and it all came from the LCC.

whatever voicing you play, rootless, thirdless, whichever memberless, 'ambiguous'/ that could fit in several parent scales, you stick to the parent scale YOU have chosen/have in mind and play its voicings (among them those you just spelled).

I see your point, it just a voicing of a chord without the root. Well, if it's a A13#11, it seems like a II degree of G lydian, but you can use already SMG or AMG. I choose very freely the options, talking about my own stuff.

Thanks for share your inversions over the chords, I use it when I play piano, in "The Jazz Piano Book" of Mark Levine is very well explained and it´s very cool, but in the guitar, that I play too (well, I use it to compose, I´m not a guitar player), I never thinks on made the inversions that I use in piano. Really really cool stuff my friend.

say I have a lead sheet which I want to understand the chords harmonic motion (ie find the most ingoing parent scale of each chord),

when I find a dim chord (diminished tetra chord), I have a symetric/ambiguous chord, which taken solely/vertically, can be considered at once for a PMG I chord (cf GR's note about dim and augmented as PMG I chords).

now I what I really want to do is considering this dim chord horizontally, by looking at the chords before and after that dim chord to understand which PMG that dim is within the song ?should I presume I want the minimum harmonic motion ? or/and a motion on the flat/sharp side that is coherent with the previous and following chords of this dim ?

well I feel I should bring an example of a song but they are too many and the situations are quite very different. I didn't ask about the melody over this dim chord because I would consider that the melody and the harmony are in a parallel universe (to use ML words) though we could/should also look for a PMG which the melody sounds within ?

Well, I think that every dim chord can be seen in horizontally way using Alternate or Conceptual Modal Tonic Degree, like a Vh of another one, or IIh, or Ih of another one scale. This is located in the same chart A.

arf ! ahah I guess I can understand but can you try to explain more? otherwise it only shows indeed you have your way of using the things of the concept but you don't really mean to explain it anyway, or at least try. I know it is hard to explain though and it takes some (very long) time to write specific answers and even more for those who aren't native speakers. If one feels better to write in spanish, it is cool for me. it's a very beautiful language.

again, thanks a lot to everyone who got involved in this thread and spent his time writing answers!!

Look, I don´t know if I use this theory in my way, I think it´s in the way that the book suggest. Viewing another example, before to talk about dim chords, if I have a 7b9 chord, I clearly pick this chord like a II degree of a Lydian Scale, and doing so I freely choose one of the seven principal Lydian Scales, I don´t pay attention to the b9 in the chord, I use anyone I want. I can do the same choosing this chord like a +V of another Lydian Scale, and so I pick any scale of de Seven Principal Lydian Scales from it. The same if a choose to look this chord like a VII of another Lydian and his Seven Principal Scales, or III degree, or +IV, or IIh, or I, all of this with his seven principal scales. When I look at a dim chord I do the same, I know that the main and primary modal tonic degree is a I and his seven lydian principal scales, and I choose freely one of them, not looking if any contains just the alterations of the dim chord. I know that doing the opposite (searching for the scale that contains the alterations) can be viewed like the right use of the Concept. I don´t suscribe with this. And I think that the spirit of the author was the same.